Academic Freedom Opposed by "Whom"?

Do students in any British or American university have to be held responsible for the actions of the British or American armed forces in Northern Ireland or Iraq? Would we not think it the grossest ignorance, not to mention bad manners, to think they should be?

It is that time of year again. News arrives of 343 "university teachers" who signed a letter pledging that henceforth they will not cooperate with Israeli academic institutions. Their joint letter took up a full page advertisement today in Britain's left-wing Guardian newspaper (where else?) and has caused almost no stir in Britain. It comes days after a letter in the Guardian's letters page, signed by 150 leading British writers, musicians and others -- including JK Rowling, Simon Schama and Hilary Mantel -- opposed any and all such boycotts against Israel, and pointed out that in the eyes of most people, intellectual and cultural exchange is a good thing.

JK Rowling, the author of the Harry Potter series, is one of 150 leading British writers, musicians and others who have signed a public letter opposing boycotts of Israel. (Image source: White House video screenshot)

The anti-boycott letter was signed by some of Britain's leading intellectuals. The main response to the pro-boycott letter, however, may well be, "Who?" Who knew, for instance, that Israel -- or any state -- would be diminished if it could not gain from the wisdom of Professor Alex Callinicos, one of Britain's most obscure Marxist academics? He is the author of numerous interminable tracts; his efforts to bring his thoughts into mainstream politics reached their summit during his involvement with the Socialist Worker's Party, an entity too extreme even for Jeremy Corbyn's Labour party. As almost nobody in Britain wants Prof. Callinicos's thoughts, why would anybody in Israel be begging for them?

Or consider another figure on the letter, one Professor Jane Hardy who teaches at the University of Hertfordshire. It would come as a great surprise to most people in Britain -- and possibly to many people in Hertfordshire -- that such an institution exists. But a quick internet search reveals that it does, and that until 1992 it was known as "Hatfield Polytechnic." So what are the students in Israel unilaterally going to lose the right to know, thanks to the stance taken by Professor Hardy? Well, her own profile page says, "My research and publications on regional development, and the gender and class impacts of change have been underpinned by a concern with the lives of ordinary people and how they have contested neoliberalism." One tries to be polite, of course, but it is worth pointing out that this kind of "study" has never been helpful in finding a place in the job-market for British students (apart, possibly, in furthering their studies in low-grade academia). Why the withdrawal of Prof. Hardy's research on regional development, gender and class in a Hertfordshire context should be such a loss to students in Israel, one is at a loss to guess.

Others on the list comprise a list of the even more obscure and unknown. Perhaps their families know who some of them are? The majority are from Britain's second or third tier universities, former polytechnics misguidedly rebranded as universities, which have lowered the coinage of universities as a whole. Of course, there is, as usual, the requisite smattering of Jewish names, brought to the fore by the petition's organizers in an attempt to cover over the latent bigotry and racism of their letter. But what a chorus of presumption and self-importance is there.

Just consider the reasoning behind the letter and you will see that it shows the tragically low bar now needed in Britain to qualify as an academic.

Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, for instance, speaking for the organizers of the boycott letter, says, "Israel universities are at the heart of Israel's violations of international law and oppression of the Palestinian people." Is that really true? Take one of the hardest measures that the Israeli state has ever had to carry out against those who carry out suicide terrorism against its people: home demolition (in which the home of a terrorist is destroyed after the case has gone through the courts, because it is hard to find many ways to dissuade someone from doing something if they are willing to die in the process: but what happens to their family home afterwards can provide a disincentive). Does anybody know how Prof. Rosenhead has come to the belief that home demolition of suicide bombers is work carried out by the universities of Israel? Ordinarily it would be the IDF or other security forces that would carry out such regrettable work. Does Prof. Rosenhead really have evidence that it is in fact Israeli academics who are sent to carry out such an order? It seems vanishingly unlikely. And even if one academic somewhere in Israel had been involved, why should that affect somebody studying literature at a university in Tel Aviv? Do students in any British or American university have to be held responsible for the actions of the British or American armed forces in Northern Ireland or Iraq? Would we not think it the grossest ignorance, not to mention bad manners, to think they should be?

Prof. Rosenhead's view of what ordinary academics are up against appears to be skewed at home as well as abroad. At the launch of his racist petition he announced, "These signatures were all collected despite the pressures that can be put on people not to criticise the state of Israel." I do not know where he thinks such pressure comes from. To my eye the only people who exert any pressure not to sign boycott letters are a couple of small Zionist organisations in the UK. It is hard to believe that this comprises a force that is feared by these brave signatories unless the idea that the organizers are in fact playing into is that there is always some price to pay for standing up to "Jewish interests" and "Jewish power." Racism like that has not been heard in Britain for many decades. How unpleasant to hear it bubbling up again from the obscurest backwaters of academia.

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26 Reader Comments

Moll • Nov 4, 2015 at 10:53

It is written, the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, will 'bless those who bless Abraham, and his seed through Isaac and Jacob, and will curse those who curse Abraham, and his seed through Isaac and Jacob" [Genesis 12:3].

Thus, "343 'university teachers' who signed a letter pledging that henceforth they will NOT cooperate with Israeli academic institutions" have signed their 'death warrant' to ever becoming successful, productive, members of the academic institutions in which they perform their professional academic role. Stand aside. Watch them disappear into becoming 'nothings'! In cursing the Jews, as individuals and as in the collective, with Israeli academic institutions, they have heaped on their own heads the curses they put on the other! Apparently these 343 'university teachers' are men and women without wisdom. A wise person would have at least 'hedged their bets'.

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JOHN RICHMOND • Nov 1, 2015 at 02:48

It is a poor reflection on British Academia that these 3rd or 4th rate universities have been allowed such nomenclature. The inverse standard of learning, i.e., the more important they sound, the less important are their institutions, from the professors quoted in Douglas Murray's article, is only matched by their bigotry on the Middle East's only democratic and meritocratic society.

Though it has long been a British trait to support the underdog, which, generously, I assume is these somnolent professors regard, before making obtuse statements even such lowly institution that harbour these low standards of learning would expect their staff to check facts before pontificating.

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Edgar Davidson • Oct 31, 2015 at 16:59

This is a typically excellent (and witty) article by Douglas Murray, but unfortunately there are some signatories of the letter who are at very respectable institutions and are in positions where they have genuine influence (and do real damage I may add). I have particular concerns about the LSE signatories (there are 21 of them) and especially those at the Middle East Research Centre. These people have already put their discriminatory tactics to use: http://edgar1981.blogspot.co.uk/2015/10/lse-and-its-antisemitic-middle-east.html

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Ed in North Texas • Oct 31, 2015 at 09:37

"...the tragically low bar now needed in Britain to qualify as an academic."

Not only Britain. I can't speak to other Western countries, but the U.S. is certainly right down there with Britain in accepting this sort of standard.

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Will Knutsen • Oct 31, 2015 at 05:11

I wonder if those who want to deprive the world of intellectual communication with Israel have the same goal for Saudi Arabia, the state where dissidents are whipped, beheaded, and, even, whipped, beheaded and then crucified. This last bit of state approved psychopathic barbarity is the sentence for the now 21 yr-old Ali Mohammed al-Nimr, who was arrested when 17 for being in a protest against the government. The US has not made any public protest. Beheaded AND crucified? And then left to rot in public for three days? And the US has not filed a protest? Since 1985, Saudi Arabia has executed over 2,200 people for "crimes" including sorcery, witchcraft, adultery, and drug possession. Most of these executions were carried out in the form of a public beheading, though some were carried out by firing squad.

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Tom • Oct 30, 2015 at 22:53

Interesting that only Israel is boycotted. Kuwait this week lost the right to hold an Olympic qualifying event because it wouldn't allow Israeli athletes to
compete. Last week Qatar hosted an Olympic event wherein out of 90 plus countries only Israel couldn't fly its flag. After 2500 years, how many Jews live in Arab countries, while Israel is 20% Arab? Adolph Hitler would be proud of these academics.

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El Cid • Oct 30, 2015 at 16:36

There were some "mainstream" people on the list. I wrote them letters. Please do the same and be polite. It reminds me of Germany in 1930's. Awful.

To one physicist I wrote: "Isn't it statistically interesting that Israel is the ONLY country that is being boycotted? It must be the most evil country on earth!"

Don't forget that Stephen Hawking is of the ilk to boycott Israel. See May 2013 when he pulled out of a scientific conference in Israel to protest "Israel's treatment of the Palestinians."

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Mehed Sayid • Oct 30, 2015 at 14:06

Douglas Murray's taunting the 343 racist 'academic' crazies is a delight to read. His articles and essays always manage to shame bigots and hypocrites with a tickle of humour that makes his work a joy to behold.

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steven L • Oct 30, 2015 at 11:25

The Guardian is full of neo-orientalists who belong to the Goebbel's Media Circus. They are truly neo-fascists of the 21st century. Ignorance is bliss and can be fatal. Anti-Semitism, the oldest, the most common and the worst form of PROPAGANDA. These morons have no idea of their racist propaganda. Their ignorance is a form of hatred. They are the racists who ignore themselves.

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Valentin Vasilev • Oct 30, 2015 at 11:21

One gets sick and tired of all these Jewish intellectuals playing out their 'Jewish Guilt'. They are really pathetic exhibitionists, flashers, who strive to prove something to themselves. The more damage they cause, the better they feel. Pure masochistic fools, the whole lot of them! Hungry for acceptance, for eternal love and admiration... Some might be also fired by the thrill of competition in this revolting field of Israel bashing. Is the right honorable professor Rosenhead trying to beat Noam Chomski ?! Or it could be just a publicity stunt; helps cell books and secure lecturing invitations, i.e. it's all about the money in the end...

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David • Oct 30, 2015 at 10:35

The boycott only works one way. The Israeli universities do not need us, it is ours that need them -- only need to look at the Noble prize winners to see that. Morons like these need to have their eyes opened.

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Neville • Oct 30, 2015 at 10:26

To those of us who have spent most of our lives outside university, it seems extraordinary how prone some so-called academics are to taking political stances without any regard for relevant evidence. Those who support the boycotting of Israel's universities demonstrate a basic ignorance of the processes of logic (both deductive and inductive) and undermines any academic credibility they may otherwise have possessed. Such intellectual weaknesses constitute the clearest possible indicator of their professional incompetence.

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Fred • Oct 30, 2015 at 08:46

BDS, a restored revived Hitler Nuremberg Law by 343 pretentious "scholars" on the behest of the Israelophobic mob & Muslim oil money supporter.

The above article is brilliant in the description of the abysmally ignorant so-called academics. Who are so arrogant in their ignorance it boggles one's mind. If they feel so righteous, why not ask their masters, the Palestinian squatters, if they have ever considered to give "Peace" a go.

Taquiáh is the main stay of these professional victims, who would not hesitate to drive a knife into the 343 "scholars" if opportunity would be at hand.

Meanwhile one has to consider what academic contribution have the 343 "scholars" to the world beside self-importance.

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DockyWocky • Oct 30, 2015 at 08:40

That's about what I would expect from the junior communists that now control and occupy the former places of education.

Remember boys and girls: We'll all fry together when we fry.

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Dean • Oct 30, 2015 at 08:27

Yes, we also have the same kind of fools who have found the easiest targets to advance their Marxist views -- they always dump on Israel and the handful of Jews who have the courage to actively speak up for Israel within a Jewish community that does not generally stick up for their own.

"The requisite smattering of Jewish names" are always among the hateful, anti-Semitic BDS gang and they really should be wearing big dunce caps. They are generally used by the church groups, academic departments and Islamist groups that push them to the fore and shower them with adulation and praise (and money to keep going) provided they continue to advance the jihad and act as their dhimmis.

I wonder how they can sleep at night knowing that they are the propaganda arm of the new anti-Semitism. The brown shirts and Hitler youth of yore have been replaced by the Jewish BDS academics who would sh** on their own people for some recognition and some acknowledgment for their Marxist extremism and stupidity. They really are foolish (and some dangerous as well) clowns.

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Daniel Bratchell • Oct 30, 2015 at 08:14

The London School of Economics is a noted left wing university. In fact most of our academics, writers and actors seem to be left wing.

And Professor Rosenhead of the London School of Economics is the spitting image of Jeremy Corbyn, the new ultra left wing leader of the Labour Party.

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Lia • Oct 30, 2015 at 08:06

A university in my once-upon-a-time homeland went the same way. It had never had a Nobel candidate, let alone a laureate, had never been very high on any ranking and severed all ties with an Israeli university that has a huge stature in the world. The original university is still exactly what it was. The Israeli university has become better & better known and draws students from around the world. I wonder if it ever realised that this other little university had dropped off its lists?

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Jane • Oct 30, 2015 at 07:39

What a shoddy bunch these signatories are. Do they imagine that hit squads of Israeli academics and Nobel laureates -- Israel has many -- are attacking innocent Palestinians and poisoning the minds of their students? I think not. How I wish this lot would change the record and aim their righteous protests at some more deserving targets.

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Albert • Oct 30, 2015 at 07:28

Bevin, if he was alive, would be proud of those signers of this BDS British academics. Israel never got a good day from Britain. In fact, it closed the doors of escape from the Shoa with the White Papers followed by the Exodus, concentration camps on Cyprus for survivors of the Shoa fleeing Europe to Palestine occupied by Britain. Nothing new!

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Jeff Page • Oct 30, 2015 at 07:20

Some so-called academics need to take a long lingering look in the mirror and ask themselves, 'Is this a fool I see before me'? The answer must surely be a most definite YES! Where do these people dream up the nonsense they spout? If this is an example of the thinking that goes on in our educational facilities then it's time for a thorough clear out in order to rid establishments of such misguided individuals. Have some got a drink problem? Are they close to the edge? Are they going through a personal crisis? Something is affecting their train of thought and encroaching on their own outlook of reality! Foolish, misguided people have no place in any area of our education system. The heads of departments of many establishments have their work cut out in trying to clean up their particular places of education and getting replacements that actually know what they are talking about instead of some that only express their personal feelings.

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Solomon Balas • Oct 30, 2015 at 07:19

I am now able to pity the miserable psychological mess that self-hating Jews like Jonathan Rosenfeld, Gerald Kaufman, Richard Falk, Noam Cholmsky and George Soros find themselves in, and the self-medication they administer through attacks on other Jews to wipe their shame such as that which taints Soros whose father volunteered to be a Kapo; more mentally balanced Jews who felt they do not relate to their people convert and be done with it.

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dm • Oct 30, 2015 at 06:52

I am British living in Asia, with LSE links, idiots like Rosenhead are an absolute embarrassment to thinking people.

Is he Jewish? If he is, he is an insult to the Jewish people. Recently there have been a glut of low grade pretend Jewish people who are fronting up for Palestine and the Arab world. Why would they do that? They are aware of the ground realities of the rise of the Muslim world. Is it Arab money that is speaking, or perhaps just a platform to acquire their 5 mins of fame? Either way it's greed or showing off.

It must indeed be an eye opener to the Israeli Universities that they are performing the duties of the IDF.

There are not nice people in every walk of life, the ones that are showing their true colours in this moment of political crisis, need to be quietly toned down.

Rosenhead looks strained, as if he could do with a square meal and a good night sleep. May his nightmares be many.

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Dr James B Waddell • Oct 30, 2015 at 06:41

Some academics will go to any lengths to get published! I somehow think Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) will not give much credibility to their highly biased and inaccurate lobbying and so-called 'research'.

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David Ashton • Oct 30, 2015 at 06:39

I believe in free speech for all, and violence for no-one. Incitement to violence is not "free speech". I also believe that universities should be free from collective intimidation by teachers or students. Muslims and Jews have every right to express their opinions freely, like anyone else, whether anyone likes them or not, and there is quite a range of possible opinion. There is a problem of mutual "propaganda" in the regrettably growing conflict between many Zionists and most Islamists, but universities should provide access to maximum factual information and rational discussion. Where strong values are held by some, it is morally incumbent upon others to help "keep the peace", but this quite different from banning opinions because they (allegedly) "offend" people. Thus I dissent from the proposal by Dr Kantor (Jewish Chronicle, 23.10.15) to "make it illegal to hold racist views" whatever they are. The danger is that Humpty Dumpty becomes Big Brother, and this is especially serious in the area of university studies.

For the record, I am against boycotts in general, and the boycott of Israel in particular, but I should not have to engage in such "virtue signalling" to express my support academic freedom.

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Harvey • Oct 30, 2015 at 06:25

You have set the record straight, universities were once institutions of learning. Sadly these poor excuses for human beings are in posts NOT to educate but to attempt to brainwash gullible people with their twisted mindless hatred. Funding should be stopped for these so called academic institutions before they poison more young minds.

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dm • Oct 30, 2015 at 06:17

Interesting article, I am a Briton living in Asia. LSE idiots such as Rosenhead are an absolute embarrassment to the "thinking" Britisher.

Dr. Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician who helped the U.S. locate Osama bin Laden, has been in jail in Pakistan since he was arrested days after the raid on bin Laden's compound in 2011. In 2013, he was granted a retrial, with a new charge that appears politically motivated: charged with murder in regard to the death, eight years earlier, of a patient he had treated. Afridi has gone on a hunger strike protest his unspeakable prison conditions -- including torture. His former lawyer, Samiullah Khan Afridi, was murdered by the Taliban in March 2015. The Obama Administration appears to have abandoned him.

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